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What is mental "set" ? How does belief affect our lives? Can it actually change people and society? Does positive thinking work? How much is it used in Aikido ? Can it cure illnesses ? Can a person alter his body's functioning through "set"? Can one also alter the world around one ?
If you have just bought a new coat,you may start noticing a lot more people wearing the same or similar coats.The number of such coats may not have increased significally,but your mind has become tuned to these particular coats and picks them out from the crowd.This is an example of what pschologists call set.The mind will tend to pick out whatever it is "set" for.
If we are expecting someone to call us on the telephone,we will immediately recognize their voice on the other end.If on the otherhand,we are not expecting them and have not heard from them for some time,it may be a little while before we recognize the voice.Or again,the postman may be easily recognized when we see him standing outside the door early in the morning,but it may be much harder to recognize him on holiday in Spain.These areexamples of negative set-missing that which is not expected.
The same principle can be applied in Aikido,we must be fluent in our defence and not rigid with repetitious actions.How else can we ensure the attacker /defender is kept on their toes.If you repeatedly move in a certain direction to avoid a strike,if your perception is slightly off,your opponent's brain will have registered your previous
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The energy balance is quite simply the difference between energy input in the form of calories in food and drink and energy output in the form of calories used up in living - body functions,normal activity and exercise.If these are correctly balanced your weight will remain constant and you will be physically fit.
If,however,the energy input is too high and it is not used up in activity it will be stored in the form of body fat.If this goes on for too long the result is obesity.If the energy store is too low,the body will start to use up whatever store of fat it happens to have.This will result in weight loss which if carried too far can lead to malnutrition and ill health.
The cumulitive effect of eating only a little too much every day could prove to be disastrous.In theory,even one extra tortilla chip per day could eventually make you pounds overweight.Equally a small but regular cut-back in your sporting activity with no change in diet could produce the same effect.
So how much energy or calorific input do you need?
First of all,energy is required to maintain the fundamental processes of life.The heart must keep beating,body temperature mainained and organs kept functioning.This requirement is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and is measured when a person is resting.
Size or body weight has a significant effect on energy requirements.For example,a rugby player weighing 90kg/198lb has to exert 50% more effort to run around a pitch than a team mate weighing
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There are many stories of Indian yogis and fakirs who have been able to produce remarkable changes in their bodies merely by mentally setting themselves for those changes.One yogi was able directly to change the temperature of two patches of skin on the same hand,making one hotter and the other colder simutaneously.Although the two areas were only a couple of inches apart,they showed a temperature difference of 10 degrees Farenheit.The hot area looked bright red,while the cold area of the palm looked ashen gray.In such cases the yogi usually achieved the result by strong visualization,imagining one side of the palm to be burned by a hot coal,the other to be frozen by ice.
The Russian mnemonist "S" also used his remarkable powers of imagery to accomplish similar feats.Not only was he able to control the temperature of his hands,he was able to raise or lower his heart rate by imagining himself running for a train or lying flat in bed.He was able to alter the size of his pupils by visualizing varying degrees of light ,and he could change alpha-wave patterns in his brain by visualizing a light flashing in his eyes.
He could also use imagery to control PAIN .He described how at the dentist ,for example,he would sit there and "when the pain starts,I feel it...it's a tiny ,orange-red thread..I'm upset because I know that if this keeps up,the thread will widen until it turns into a dense mat..so I cut the thread,making it smaller and smaller until it's just a tiny point,and th
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Spinal Cord. The oldest part of the brain is the spinal cord,stretching from the neck down the center of the vertebrae to the bottom of the back.
There being a thin hollow down it's length filled with cerebrospinal fluid.There are two principle functions associated with the spinal cord:
It performs very simple reflexes,such as the knee jerk reflex,and it acts as the principal communication channel between the head and the rest of the body.The control of the body is conveyed via the spinal cord,and all bodily sensations reach the brain through the spinal cord.All that is,except those relating to the head itself,which enter and leave through the brain stem.
The Brain Stem. This is situated on top of the spinal cord.It still possesses the tubular structure of the spinal cord,and in some respects can be thought of as an extension of it.In the brain stem is a very intricate network of nerves about the size of your little finger called the reticular formation.It recieves nerves from all areas of the brain and like wise sends out nerves in every directionThe reticular formation plays an important role in maintaining wakefulness,and if it is isolated from the rest of the brain,the organism goes into permanent sleep.It also monitors and filters the the information coming in through the senses.
If for example,you are in a room with a clock that is ticking quietly,you will quickly habituate to the sound so that after a short while you will no longer hear it.But the sound is still
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There are brains that can detect the minutest changes in light,sound,smell,and touch;delicately and accurately intergrate the actions of many muscles;regulate the functioning of the body's many organs so as to preserve the optimum conditions for life.
Such brains learn from experience,and they have found ways to communicate with each other through simple "languages" and so share their knowledge.They are also sensitive to magnetic and electric fields and ultraviolet light.They can analyze the polarization of sunlight and use it to tell directions.They keep a constant track of time,even through the night.These brains function as accurate guidance systems;compensating for wind direction, they correlate the rapid beating of four tiny wings,landing their little bodies delicately at the center of a waving flower.Such brains are the size of a grain of salt,contain a mere nine hundred neurons,and can be found inside a BEE'S HEAD.What then can we expect from our own brains,ten million times in size,and many billion times as complex?
Clearly the human brain as to control a much larger body.This,however,is only part of the answer;a much smaller brain could carry out all the necessary functions quite satisfactory.A shark,for example,has a large body and very accurate senses,but its brain is very much smaller than ours.
Where we differ most radically from bees and sharks-and from virtually every other creature-is in our highly developed use of language,our capacity to learn not
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